1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink feed container used in an ink jet printing apparatus, and more specifically, in a color ink jet printing apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
An ink feed container used in an ink jet printing apparatus generally has a structure, as in Japan Patent Laying-Open Gazette Showa 59-194855 (1984), wherein a single ink storage bag is accommodated inside a flat ink cassette with a part of detection plate, which is mounted thereon, facing a detecting device. This type of ink feed container, however, is designed to accommodate one ink storage bag in one ink cartridge. Therefore an ink jet printing apparatus that forms color images by using various kinds of ink requires a large amount of space to accommodate multiple ink cartridges. In addition, an equal number of detecting devices as the number of ink cartridges are required. These two requirements lead to increased production costs.
In view of the problems described above, the present invention provides an ink feed container for ink jet printing apparatuses, especially those which use many kinds of ink, that can reduce accommodation space requirements and costs as much as possible. The ink feed container of the present invention accommodates a plurality of ink storage bags in a case main body with partitioning members. A common positioning part for the positioning and locking of respective ink feed ports of the ink storage bags is provided on an end wall inner surface of the case main body. Each of the plurality of ink storage bags is provided with its own detection plate which is folded to form a detectable piece that is positioned to be deviated from one another to face a common visual observation window hole and detecting means.
This structure allows the accommodation space to be reduced as much as possible by accommodating the plurality of ink storage bags in the single case main body. It also allows the production costs to be reduced by performing detection with a common detecting means.